Beginning the Fall 2024 semester, all courses at John Jay will be conducted through a new online learning software, namely, Brightspace.
The switch from Blackboard to Brightspace at John Jay College is causing a shift in how students manage their academic responsibilities and how professors manage their classes.
Although all classes will be conducted through Brightspace, Blackboard will still be available for fulfillment of outstanding incompletes and course backups.
Brightspace is a comprehensive learning management system that is programed to offer support for teaching and learning across different modalities.
This change platforms aims to improve user experience with online learning; it has sparked a range of reactions among students and faculty.
Helen Keier, Director for Learning Management Systems in the Department of Online Education and Support at John Jay, shared her thoughts about Brightspace.
“Brightspace was not chosen as John Jay’s platform, but specifically, for all of CUNY.” She said, “There was a long open proposal process and following submissions from multiple vendors; Brightspace was the recommendation of a large, cross-campus committee.”
In an email sent through important announcements for students at John Jay, Keier and Interim Assistant, Vice President, and Dean of students Danielle M. Officer mentioned that “Brightspace looks different from Blackboard, but learning online stays the same.”
John Jay is not the only CUNY school transitioning from Blackboard to Brightspace. All 25 CUNY colleges are preparing through transition groups in a timeline for a more organized shift from previous platforms.
While the overall aim of this transition is to make online learning easier, students and faculty continue to face challenges while adapting to Brightspace.
Christina DeJesus, a senior at John Jay majoring in forensic psychology, expressed that she enjoyed the old-fashioned design of Blackboard.
“Brightspace looks nicer, but I’m not necessarily sure if it’s better.” She said, “It’s a bit difficult to navigate through, my professor posts things, but you have to open everything through Dropbox; there are folders everywhere.”
Members of the University Faculty Senate spoke about pending issues within Brightspace and decided to remove some features on the software. This included the removal of the instant messaging tool and the ability to hide the address book in messaging tools.
In light of Brightspace’s development, training sessions will be held for faculty members from August 28th to September 12th. These trainings sessions are optional and were organized by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Innovation, Dr. Kim L Siegenthaler.
Faculty members are also finding ways to utilize Brightspace’s features to enhance their teaching methods and engage students more effectively.
Associate Professor of English, Gender Studies, and the Director of the Gender Studies Program Olivera Jokic spoke about her first day of classes for the Fall 2024 semester.
“Professors are all figuring out to the best of their ability how the whole thing works.” She said, “I would suggest giving everyone a bit of time to get adjusted, especially a lot of patience for people who take longer to adapt to new tech and interface.”
Michael Entin, a sophomore at John Jay majoring in fraud examinations and financial forensics, used Brightspace while studying at Marymount Manhattan College before transferring to John Jay.
“I needed to readapt since I haven’t used it since the Spring 2023 semester.” He said, “some professors have already used Brightspace before too.”
Keier recommends students to prepare for this upcoming shift.
“We highly encourage you to spend some time testing out the space before you use Brightspace in all your classes,” said Keier.
John Jay students can find training courses for the online learning software on Brightspace’s website.
Sara Whitestone, a professor in the English Department at John Jay, spoke more about her experience adapting to Brightspace.
“Brightspace offers a lot of different strategies and it is visually more streamlined than Blackboard.” She said, “in the long run, I think Brightspace will be better for students, as it is easier to navigate and not so clunky.”
Whitestone also says it took her “hours and hours” to build courses from scratch onto the new Brightspace platform.
“All faculty spent large chunks of their summer doing this. It is a learning curve,” said Whitestone. “Several students turned in the first assignment, which isn’t due until Friday. This is a good sign that students are navigating Brightspace easily.”
Whitestone also acknowledged the institution’s success in transitioning.
“Students probably won’t know who the behind-the-scenes Brightspace team is, but there is so much more to a school than the faculty who meet with students. There are so many staff members, quietly working to support us like Helen and her team. These in particular, deserve so much praise, especially right now,” she said.
